#10: The Five Runner Ups

Every few years, an event happens that has the ability to shape your entire future: to shift the paradigms that are presently set, and create a “rite of passage” so to speak into adulthood. Graduation just might be that event that will be the turning point of my life. When I graduated high school, not much changed immediately after – but in entering college I realized all my prior experiences prepared and ultimately transitioned me into the college lifestyle I now have. Time will only tell if these said “college experiences” will shape my experiences in the real world, i.e. in adulthood.

With 10 days left before graduation, I can’t help but have these feelings twirling around in my head. In doing so, I will countdown everyday until graduation the top 10 memories I have experienced in my UCSD career.

We began with number 10, which was much of a struggle to decide. In the end, I settled for identifying five clear events that all simultaneously tie for last place. Here goes, in no particular order.

10a) Halloween Party [October 2009] –> On the weekend of Halloween my sophomore year, it was rather fitting to have a “Halloween Party”. In doing so, we had fun playing board & drinking games with John Torres, Howard, Leandro, Julie, Susan, Jordan, Brittney, Leah, etc, etc. What made it memorable was the fact that was the night I swore to stop drinking. Why? Because I became a mess as soon as it happened. Coming out of a terrible summer (rejections, Conference Services, etc.), paralleled with various other mental obstacles that prevented me from achieving self-actualization, I became a pretty depressing drunk: yelling at people, tearing pictures down walls, crying and kicking down chairs. When we “Banged”, I refused to acknowledge the existence of certain cards that reminded me of certain persons. It wasn’t so funny back then, but it’s pretty entertaining to contemplate looking from an older “been there done that” perspective. From that point on I swore to stop drinking, which lasted roughly a year and three quarters.

Memorable Quote: “Don’t Compare me to Ryan. *Kicks Chair down*”

10b) American Idol Green Hair Bet

In the same year, John Torres and I made a bet while watching the 9th season of American Idol with Howard and Leandro. Eventually, when it came down to the final two: Lee Dewyze and Crystal Bowersox, it was time to make a bet. During the entire season we pretty much chose our two favorites, and we were both pretty confident they were going to win. The bet was simple: If Lee Dewyze won American Idol John Torres would dye his hair green. Likewise, if Crystal Bowersox won American Idol I would dye my hair blue. Who ended up winning? That’s obvious from the picture seen below.

10c) World’s Strongest Man Competition

ZINGER. Around the living room me, Leandro, Howard, and John Torres as men were all appropriately watching the World’s Strongest Man Competition. On the screen, we were all shocked by the challenges the grueling contestants had to endure. One particular challenge including men pulling cars with their backs. So exciting. I made the excessive comment of saying “OH WHAT ARE THEY GOING TO DO NEXT? Pull boats?”. Everyone laughed at me and mocked at me for making a “dumb comment”. Little did they know, that would be the next challenge. And from that point on, nobody ever dared mocked me again! (I wish). Muahahah.

10d) Clinton Global Initiative

The Clinton Global Initiative was surprisingly entertaining: sitting through various discussions, seminars, & seeing real celebrities Mandy Moore and Sean Penn was a very unique experience. The free food also was a plus as I walked around meeting various people from all over the country. Granted, I never really carried out my “Global Initiative”, but I respected that Clinton made the conference essentially non-partisan. Regardless of whether you believe the government should be involved in re-distributing wealth, it should be up to individuals to carry out the changes necessary to change society for the better. I, in the end, can agree with that mission statement (though I disagree with much of what Clinton did during his term that helped lead to 9/11). The best part of the conference was by far when we were about to go take a picture and I got to shake his hand!

I also sat two rows back from him. Click the image to find me 🙂

10e): The [ABLE] Campaign

And of course it would be Alyssa Wing’s great idea (With the addition of John Torres, Noir, Alethia, Katie etc.) for all of us to model our pictures appropriately for a class project. We demostrated the “ability” in everyone through the project. More details here.  And here are the pictures and videos to inspire us all! It was a fun project to make, despite not really fleshing out until the end.

Things that didn’t make the cut:

SunGod 2009, SunGod 2010, SunGod 2011, SunGod 2012
Larping
Spirit Night ’10, ’11,
Daily Mario Kart-ing
Phil’s BBQ (TOO MANY TRIPS TO CHOOSE JUST ONE!)
Conference Services
First Drink ever (Summer 2009)
Adventures in L.A. (Alexis/Leandro/Torres/Leah/Ryan)
Red Robin Trip (freshman year), Souplantation Trip (+ missing keys)
Environment, Health, and Safety
Glee Nights (too many to choose from)
Church
Blue Republicans Event
PAW’s Valentine’s Day Extravaganza
Disneyland
ICRA Training
Rushing Lambda Chi Alpha
Mario Party (50 Rounds)
ICRA – Anything
Jorge’s Re-election
Summer ThinkTogether
Price Center Movies
InfinityBurger
Tofu Houses / Phos
Comic Con
Pho/Wal*Mart Runs
Any ICRA Event / Any PAW Event / any Youth for Ron Paul meeting
Meetings, meetings, meetings
Gym / Insanity / P90X
Orientation
All Campus Dance
Any Beach Trip / San Diego Zoo
Cliffs
Canyon Vista / Plaza / Sierra Summit / Pines/ Goodies / OceanViewTerrace / Cafe Ventanas/ Foodworx
Career Services Center (Employment)
Cliques / Geisel
Watching American Idol / Game of Thrones / Man Men / Breaking Bad / How I Met Your Mother
Ralph’s / Von’s / UTC / Fashion Valley / Busing / Arriba/Nobel; 201/202; 41;30;150
Conference Services Fourth of July
Laptop Breaking
Driving Cart at work
PAW Banquet / PAW Retreats
Viva la Vida / Fireflies